In her latest attack on Obamacare, Julie McDonald-Smith asserts that the federal requirement that Medicaid cover 19- and 20-year-olds is “just one shining example of why” Obamacare “is a horror that needs to be repealed in its entirety.” But surely other shining examples of the horror that is Obamacare should be cited:
• The percentage of Americans without health insurance decreased sharply after the Obamacare mandate went into effect in 2014, to only 13.4 percent in the third quarter of 2014.
• The rate of uninsured Americans is the lowest since 2008.
• The rate of health care inflation in 2014 was under 3 percent, compared to the long-term average of 5.5 percent.
• The estimated mid-February number of Obamacare sign-ups for private insurance is 11. 6 million.
• The estimated mid-February increase of Obamacare-enabled Medicaid/CHIP-covered Americans is 13.6 million.
Undoubtedly, other horrors can be found lurking in the data for health care after Obamacare became effective. But at least the above examples meaningfully expand on the example cited by McDonald-Smith.
Lowell D. Turnbull
Portland
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